In addition to the more than 120 free seminars and ticketed workshops at this year’s NRA Carry Guard Expo in Richmond, Va., a number of interactive areas and training opportunities from NRA Carry Guard will also be available.

Take part in the type of scenario-based training that plays an important role in NRA Carry Guard at the Virtual Reality Experience. Virtual Reality technology puts participants into a realistic, life-like environment where they must rapidly make decisions and act under stress. Come experience this new training tool for yourself at the NRA Carry Guard booth in the exhibit hall.

For another opportunity to test your ability to make a decision and act under stress, don’t miss the NRA Carry Guard Interactive Experience. Train outside the confines of a standard ‘square range’ environment as you’re placed into a life-like scenario featuring role players and Ultimate Training Munitions (UTM) where you’ll be faced with situations that force you to make a decision and act quickly. Then, debrief with an NRA Carry Guard Instructor and a legal advisor to assess your performance. Even those not participating will be able to get valuable ‘mental reps’ by observing the scenarios and listening to the debriefs.

Plan ahead for your NRA Carry Guard Interactive Experience and leave your firearm at home. While lawfully carried firearms will be permitted in the Greater Richmond Convention Center in accordance with Virginia law, attendees carrying at the show will not be permitted to participate in the Interactive Experience, and no on-site storage will be available.

If you’re looking to truly take your marksmanship skills to the next level and prepare for Every Day Carry, get to Richmond a few days early for the NRA Carry Guard Basic Course at Winding Brook Indoor Shooting Range on September 11-12. The two-day course consists of both classroom instruction and live fire training designed in conjunction with two Army Special Forces combat veterans, James R. Jarrett and Jeff Houston, along with fellow Navy SEALs Jack Carr and Eric Frohardt, with input from some of the most accomplished shooters in the industry. Lessons and drills will teach students to use a concealed carry handgun, to understand the limitations of their skills and chosen weapon, and to be equipped to make sound, logical decisions under stress should the need to defend themselves or their families arise. Only a couple spots remain available—click here to secure your spot now.

Learn about NRA Carry Guard Training Director and NRA Director of Education and Training Eric Frohardt below, and make plans to visit the NRA Carry Guard interactive experiences in Richmond to take advantages of these exciting training opportunities. Show admission includes entrance to the exhibit hall floor for all three days of the expo, plus all of the free seminars and interactive activities taking place September 14-16 in the Greater Richmond Convention Center. Click here to purchase yours today!

Q&A With Eric Frohardt

Tell us a little bit about your background. Where did your interest and expertise start and how did you get to where you are in your field today?

I had the honor of serving in the military as a U.S. Navy SEAL—much of it at a very high level. After being medically retired, a business partner and I raised money and purchased a failing gun range. We fixed up the facility, switched up the retail mix and launched our own training program. It was then that I honed my ability to write curriculum, train instructors and ensure all students were having a consistent experience—regardless of who was teaching. It was also a chance to give back. We taught citizens some of the skills that we used to save our own lives in violent encounters.

With business running smoothly, I stepped down from the gun range and was hired as the CEO of a global fitness organization with approximately 4,000 instructors in 46 countries. Though not firearms related, it was a great experience and helped me learn even more about ensuring we had the best curriculum, best instructors and a consistent delivery of this material on six different continents and in multiple languages. When NRA Carry Guard launched, I was brought in to help develop the curriculum. This led to me becoming the NRA Carry Guard Training Director and ultimately the NRA Director of Education and Training. Now, I get to work alongside other NRA Instructors and help people of all levels become more responsibly armed Americans!

Describe your experience in the roles of instructor, training developer and NRA Carry Guard leadership. What have you learned about the community and lifestyle associated with concealed carry, personal protection and home defense?

It’s important to me that I’m always learning, and this has been a chance to learn so much—from other members of the NRA Carry Guard Leadership Team, from NRA Carry Guard Instructors and from our students. I do not have a monopoly on good ideas, and I’m invested in finding the best way forward. I’ve done everything from developing curriculum and training instructors to teaching students. At the end of the day, we are all students and we are all still learning.

Personal protection, in the home or outside of it, is a lifestyle. I am always doing something to make myself a better asset to my family or my community, including firearms training, martial arts courses and even some medical classes. I never want to have to use it, but I want to have it if I need it! Before being part of this team—this community—I considered myself pretty aware and prepared. Now, because I’m always surrounded by it, I’m trying even harder to be more aware, more prepared and more willing!

When and how did you first become involved with NRA Carry Guard?

In early 2017, through my relationship with Jack Carr from our shared times in the SEAL Teams, I joined the program as a consultant advisor. That morphed into me helping write curriculum and build out an instructor pipeline. When I was then offered a position as the NRA Carry Guard Training Director, I was humbled and gladly took it.

How does it fit into your overall support of the NRA and the Second Amendment?

I am a strong supporter of our NRA. While I was overseas fighting, they were in the fight here. The only reason we can still Keep and Bear Arms is because of the tireless efforts of the NRA. Now that I work for the NRA, it’s a chance to give back. It’s a chance to once again serve our country and support a crucial right and freedom of a free people.

What was your favorite part of the inaugural NRA Carry Guard Expo last year in Milwaukee?

It was exciting to bring together a bunch of great vendors with some of their newest personal protection products. There were also some excellent presentations, both for the average citizen and the firearms enthusiast or instructor. It really was an awesome show.

What do you find is one of today’s biggest threats to personal safety or individual freedoms?

Complacency. We had a saying in the military: “complacency kills.” It’s true. The moment you don’t take something seriously enough, it can get you. I’m not recommending paranoia, just awareness. It’s easy to say, “I don’t think I need my gun today.” It’s much harder to adjust your clothing and lifestyle to Every Day Carry. But, it’s better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Can you share a story of how your training has directly impacted your life or the life of someone you’ve taught or made training available to?

When I first moved to Denver, I had the opportunity to teach a husband and wife how to shoot. They were interested in training so they could obtain their CCW permit. My business partner and I trained them a couple times each, starting with the basics and then advancing quickly since the learning curve is different with one-on-one training. One night, she heard a noise in her house at 2:00 a.m. She grabbed her gun and her light to investigate. There was a shadow of a person in her living room—at 2 a.m.! Thankfully, we had taught her the all-important safety rule: Know your target and what is around and beyond it. We started all lessons with the safety rules, something I had learned in the SEAL Teams. We engrained on the couple that you need to know how to use a light, because many uses of a gun for self-defense could happen in the dark.

On the night of this event, she ‘fell to her level of training.’ She knew you can’t shoot at shadows. She knew that she needed to I.D. her target before she could shoot. While maintaining concealment by using a corner, she shined her light at the shadowy figure in her living room. It was a local law enforcement officer. She did not shoot. She lowered her gun to a low ready and calmly asked the officer why he was in her house. At that time, the local police department would go into a house if the garage door was up at night since this was a common tactic in use by criminals to rob homes. The officer looked around to be sure no one else had come in the garage, and then continued on with his shift. Sometimes the shots that aren’t taken are more important than the ones that are. Hearing that story was incredibly rewarding to me as an NRA Instructor!

What is a simple, but perhaps overlooked, aspect of concealed carry or personal protection that you recommend everyone consider?

Daily draw practice from concealment with your gun, holster and the clothing you’ll be wearing that day. Plus, practice getting to your back up magazine (if you have it, which I recommend) as well as practicing how to use your handheld light and draw one-handed. Simply put, daily practice of accessing all the tools you carry for preparation. It only takes 5-10 minutes.

Tell us the top three reasons to attend the NRA Carry Guard Expo and participate in the NRA Carry Guard Virtual Reality Experience, Interactive Experience and Basic Course this year in Richmond, Va.

Reason 1: Terrific presentations by some of the best minds in the personal protection space. They will cover everything from mindset to medical skills—it’s not just about shooting. That said, there are many presentations on shooting. Some basic, some more advanced, but all taught by some of the best in the industry. Plus, the two different forms of scenario training—one featuring VR technology and the other featuring Ultimate Training Munitions (UTM)—are a great chance to test your own decision making under stress.

Reason 2: Great vendors with personal protection specific products.

Reason 3: Meeting and networking with people who share your passion for personal protection, exchanging ideas and learning from each other. I learn so much from so many at these shows!

The second annual NRA Carry Guard Expo is now less than a month away. Once you buy your three-day admission badge that gets you into the show, the exhibit hall and all of the free seminars taking place Friday-Sunday, September 14-16.